Hello, my dears, and welcome to another edition of my Pin with me series!
My Pinterest account is a vast repository of images of jewelry, organized in various boards by jewelry type, maker, era, etc. Last time, we talked about my Jewelry styling inspiration board, which is dedicated to jewelry in paintings. Today we’re going to be talking about another specific category board that I started not too long ago: my Mourning and Mememto Mori Jewelry board.
First, a brief word about mourning and memento mori jewelry.
Searching Pinterest for pieces of jewelry that actually fit these two related but still separate categories is a challenge in several ways. The frustrating part is how much mis-labeled junk you get in the search: vaguely goth, contemporary crap with skulls and such.
On top of that is the disturbing part: sometimes mourning jewelry is categorized alongside things that I personally would rather not see. My Mourning and Memento Mori Jewelry board is all about historical jewelry, but mourning and memento mori jewelry – or pieces miscategorized as such – also tend to turn up on Pinterest boards with things like memorial photos of dead children, preserved unusual animal carcasses…that kind of macabre curiosities. I’m always interested in mourning jewelry. I am never interested in being unpleasantly surprised by unexpected photos of dead children.
For these reasons: I prefer to add mourning and memento mori jewelry to my Pinterest board by either adding it myself from reputable sources or by repinning pins collected by trustworthy individuals on Pinterest rather than widely searching.
Not to be like “follow my board or be unpleasantly surprised by pictures of dead people” but I guess that sort of is what I’m saying? Definitely a strong argument.
Find full info and source links for the slideshow photos in the Pinterest board.
If you’re looking for more info on mourning jewelry, I highly recommend Sarah Nehama’s book, In Death Lamented: The Tradition of Anglo-American Mourning Jewelry, and the exceptional blog, The Art of Mourning.
Come pin with me! Find all my boards at this link, and a direct path to Mourning and Memento Mori jewels here or above, if you too are fascinated by mourning and memento jewelry.
I won’t be posting on Wednesday because I’m off to the beach! See you on Friday.
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Such an interesting category of jewellery, but certainly some beautiful and intricate pieces here. Jewellery can certainly hold a very sentimental place for its owner for various reasons, and these designs clearly fit into that category. It’s beautiful to see how jewellery can be a powerful artistic means of expressing a sentiment or symbolising a love.